Hire costs remained above 40 Worldscale points even as demand to book tankers got off to a “slow start,” said Halvor Ellefsen, a shipbroker at Galbraith’s Ltd. in London. The VLCC fleet’s carrying capacity will expand 5.1 percent this year, near demand growth of 5 percent, according to Clarkson Plc, the world’s largest shipbroker.
“Charterers got the dates for July loadings today,” Odysseas Valatsas, chartering manager at Dynacom Tankers Management Ltd., an Athens-based operator of the vessels, said by e-mail today. “They are moving slowly at the moment, in order to create momentum.”
Daily earnings for VLCCs on the benchmark voyage fell 8.9 percent to $15,016 according to the exchange. Its assessments don’t account for owners’ efforts to improve returns by securing cargoes for return-leg voyages or reducing speed to burn less fuel, the industry’s biggest expense.
The Worldscale system is a method for pricing oil cargoes on thousands of trade routes. Each individual voyage’s flat rate, expressed in dollars a ton, is set once a year. Today’s level means hire costs on the benchmark route are 41.75 percent of the nominal Worldscale rate for that voyage.
The biggest one-day change for ships hauling crude was for tankers shipping cargoes across the Mediterranean, which gained 2 percent to 77.25 Worldscale points. For vessels shipping refined fuels, the largest move was for tankers heading to the U.S. Atlantic Coast from the Caribbean, which added 1.4 percent to 129.25 points, according to the exchange.